United States President Donald Trump has said Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, is still alive but “very seriously wounded,”
amid continuing uncertainty over the Iranian leader’s health and ability to govern.
Trump made the disclosure on Wednesday, August 26, during an interview with conservative radio host Glenn Beck.
“I don’t think he’s dead. He was very seriously wounded. The left side of his body, the arm, the leg, the whole thing. He was very seriously wounded. But I don’t think he’s dead,” Trump said.
Mojtaba Khamenei became Iran’s Supreme Leader after his father, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed during US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28.
The younger Khamenei was reportedly wounded in the same attacks and has not appeared publicly since his appointment.
His prolonged absence has fuelled speculation over his health and the extent to which he is exercising power, although Iran continues to officially recognise him as the country’s Supreme Leader.
Iranian state media have released messages attributed to Mojtaba during the conflict. In one message, he said he had lost several members of his family, including his wife, sister, her child and brother-in-law, following the attack that killed his father.
Mojtaba, one of Ali Khamenei’s six children, was named his successor about a week after his father’s death.
In a message attributed to him during funeral ceremonies for Ali Khamenei, Mojtaba pledged to avenge his father’s death.
Trump’s latest comments come months after he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Ali Khamenei had been killed in the US-Israeli strikes.
At the time, Trump announced the reported death on his Truth Social platform, writing: “Khamenei, one of the most evil people in History, is dead.”
Netanyahu also said there were indications that the Iranian leader had been killed.
“This morning, in a powerful surprise strike, the compound of the tyrant Ali Khamenei was destroyed in the heart of Tehran… and there are many signs that this tyrant is no longer alive,” Netanyahu said in a televised statement.
The strikes triggered a missile response from Tehran, sending people seeking shelter as the barrage reached cities across the Middle East.
Meanwhile, Trump said his administration’s military and economic pressure on Iran was yielding results, expressing confidence that the United States would achieve what he described as a major victory.
“Those things are going toward a very big victory,” Trump said, adding that he expected a major victory soon.
Trump maintained that preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon remained the central objective of the US campaign.
“We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon,” he said, arguing that Tehran could potentially use one.
The US president also maintained that the strategically important Strait of Hormuz remained open despite continued disruption to shipping.
